Archive for July, 2011
Posted on July 7, 2011
MySpace isn’t your babysitter
A federal judge dismissed a case brought against MySpace. They plan to appeal, but for the moment, justice is done!
A family is suing MySpace.com for allowing their 14 year old girl to meet someone (a 19 year old) and provide her cell phone number to them (oh, they also met for a date before she was assualted). Clearly, MySpace needs to do more to protect our kids (and needs to shill out $30 million to comfort us).
Ok, you could probably tell from the intro that I feel very strongly on this matter. For those of you who have read my previous columns, you know how I feel about parental responsibilites. You also know how I feel about web pages and chat accounts. In case you don’t, here is a reminder. Parents need to know what their kids are doing. This is not to say you know each and every action, but you should at least know the date your 14 year old is going on is with a 19 year old she met on the Internet. That is the bottom line. No parent can claim an external source such as myspace is responsible for poor parental control.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I feel horrible for the girl. The fact that she had to endure this situation is simply unforgivable. The 19 year old who did this should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. (I personally wonder if we will ever know what happens to him, or if it will all blow over). I do make the assumption that he was guilty (for the sake of arguement and also the lack of facts detailing the incident).